4SS: 13 Rabbits in a Hat
by Ta1u1a
Summary: 13 of 22 in the 4th Sister Series, alternate season 4. The sisters face a magician who is kidnapping children to pay off a debt to a demon.


Rabbits in a Hat  
>Thirteenth episode in the Fourth Sister Series<p>

* * *

><p>Piper finished icing a large sheet cake with chocolate frosting and started to prepare some colored frosting to do some lettering and decorations on the cake. Price was at the kitchen table, sitting in front of her laptop working on a story that was due later in the day, but her heart wasn't in it. All she could do was think about Puck and how he had reacted. She hadn't heard from him in a little over a week. What that meant she wasn't sure. She figured that if it went on much longer it would mean that there was no chance for them.<p>

Phoebe walked in there and her eyes widened in delight when she saw the cake. Piper looked over and noticed Phoebe's expression.

"Before you even think about it, don't," Piper warned, pointing a frosting covered finger at her little sister.

"What's it for?" Phoebe asked.

"I'm doing a favor for an old friend. Catering her son's birthday party for a reduced rate," she explained, going back to making the colored icing.

"You're making your friend pay?" Phoebe asked. She knew Piper wasn't the type to take money from her friends unless they had borrowed it.

"No, she insisted," Piper said. "So we haggled over the fee that she would pay. It was kinda funny that she wanted to hire me for more than I would take. Actually, if you wouldn't mind, I could use some help."

"You want help? From me?" Phoebe asked. Piper never asked Phoebe for help with food matters because it was a well-known fact in the Halliwell household that Phoebe and cooking were not good bedfellows.

"Not with the cooking," Piper said with a smirk. "With the carrying and serving."

"I don't know," Phoebe said reluctantly. "Why don't you ask Price to help you?" Phoebe turned to her twin. "Hey Price." No response. She continued staring at her computer screen. "Price." Phoebe looked at Piper, who shrugged her shoulders. Then Phoebe stepped forward and waved her hand between the computer screen and Price's line of sight. Finally she came out of her trance. She looked up, confused. Then she sighed.

"I'm sorry, did you want something?" she asked.

"Exciting story you're working on there, huh?" Phoebe asked with a smirk.

"No, I was just…spacing out I guess, thinking about Puck," she replied.

Piper and Phoebe looked at each other and they both sat at the table across from her as she shut her laptop down.

"You know, Price, I don't think you should get your hopes up," Piper said. "I mean, it's hard for mortals to deal with the supernatural. Hell, it's hard enough for us."

"Prue and Andy are the perfect example," Phoebe said. "They loved each other with all their hearts. But Andy just couldn't handle raising a family in our world. Maybe in time it would have worked out but…"

"So you're saying since Puck and I aren't as close, it won't work," Price said sharply.

"No, we're just saying that…it's less likely," Piper said, choosing her words carefully. "We just don't want to see you get hurt."

"Too late for that," she said. She closed her laptop and took it and her notes away with her.

"Should we be worried?" Phoebe asked.

"She just has never had to deal with this situation before," Piper said, standing to return to the cake. "She'll just have to get used to it." Then she looked hopefully at Phoebe. "So are you gonna help?"

* * *

><p>"That has got to be the cheesiest thing I've ever seen," Phoebe commented to Piper, who quickly slapped her on the arm.<p>

"Hush!" she scolded. "The kids like it. That's all that matters."

"Yeah, but you can easily see the string coming from the hand that's above teddy bear," Phoebe commented. The magician that Piper's friend had hired was "levitating" a small teddy bear. The children were, of course, enthralled. Phoebe was disgusted.

"Oh come on, Pheebs," Piper said, rolling her eyes. "It's a child's magician. It's not like he's supposed to be all that great."

Phoebe sighed and stared at Maxwell the Magnificent (as his trunk of props read in big white letters on the lid). For some reason he just really bothered her. He had a feeling about him that she just couldn't place. She guessed that was probably why she was so disgusted by his "magic" show. She tried to dispel all thoughts about it and just let it go, but it kept nagging at her.

The show went on and the magician made some balloon animals when he was done. Piper leaned over and joked to Phoebe, "Sure you thought the levitation was lame, but can you make balloon animals?"

Phoebe rolled her eyes and helped Piper dish out the cake and ice cream, momentarily forgetting about the magician.

* * *

><p>Maxwell was loading his props in his trunk when the birthday boy, Steven, walked up to him. He smiled at the boy and closed his trunk.<p>

"And what can I do for you little man?" he asked, leaning his hands on his knees so he could be eye level with the nine-year-old boy.

"How did you make the bear float?" Steven asked.

"Ah, my boy, a good magician never reveals his secrets," Maxwell said. "But I can show you one of my special tricks that I reserve only for certain people."

"Cool," Steven said with a smile. He was getting a treat here. He could go back and tell his friends that Maxwell the Magnificent did a special trick for him. "What is it?"

"It's a disappearing trick," Maxwell explained. He took out a piece of chalk and drew a circle on the floor. Then he drew some strange little pictures that Steven didn't recognize inside the circle. Finally he took a hoop with a long black cloth attached to it all around the hoop. He placed it on the floor over the circle and pictures and looked to Steven.

"Stand in there," he said, pointing to the center of the hoop. Steven looked worried, but Maxwell gave him a reassuring smile. Steven stood where Maxwell said to and waited. "Okay, now I'll lift this up so nobody can see you except from above." Maxwell did so. "Now I'll say the magic words and drop the hoop, and you'll be gone."

"Okay," Steven said nervously. His friends would be so jealous, he tried to reassure himself. He heard Maxwell chanting some weird words. Then he felt nothing.

Maxwell dropped the hoop to the floor and looked around, slightly nervous. He opened his trunk, threw the hoop in and started scuffing up the chalk with his feet. When it was sufficiently scuffed up, he lifted his trunk and walked away.

* * *

><p>Price sat at her computer still staring at the screen. A feature article on San Francisco's XTC and rave issues stared back at her with its two introductory paragraphs. What was her problem? Puck. That was her problem. As long as she didn't know what was going to happen between the two of them she couldn't concentrate on anything. She shut down her laptop, grabbed her jacket and headed out of the house.<p>

She arrived at the Federal Building, knowing from past articles she had written that that was where the San Francisco branch of the FBI was located. She hoped he would be in, needing to know then and there where they stood. She approached the front desk. A red-headed receptionist wearing a telephone headset looked up and smiled at her.

"Hi, can I help you?" the woman, whose nameplate read Alice Hurley, asked.

"Um, yes," Price said, suddenly nervous for some reason. "My name is Price Halliwell. I'm looking for Agent Puck Wolfman.

"Of course," Alice said. "He's in interrogation with a suspect right now in that room." Alice pointed toward a door that had frosted glass with a black 3 on it. "You can wait in the chairs over there and I'm sure he'll be out soon."

Price sat for fifteen minutes. Her deadline on her story was fast approaching. As she glanced at her watch for the tenth time she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the interrogation room door was opening. She stood. Puck emerged followed by a uniformed officer with a handcuffed suspect. Puck saw Price and stopped for a moment. Then he turned to his left without a word. She couldn't let him go. She followed him, calling after him.

"Puck," she called. He kept walking. "Puck, would you stop for one second?"

He stopped at a desk and sat. "There. My desk. I'm stopped."

"I was just wondering…" she began. She hadn't even thought about how she would start this conversation. Puck waited for her to say more, but she didn't.

"I'm not going to expose you or your sisters," he said, shuffling through some files on his desk. "Don't fret your pretty little head about it."

"That was condescending," Price said, now insulted.

"Well, I get condescending when people lie to me," he shot back.

"Excuse me?" Price asked, apalled. "You lied to me. You dated me and you told me you were a stock broker who occasionally moonlighted as a tax accountant during tax season. Tell me this. Are your parents dead? Does your sister live in Toledo? Do you have a brother in prison?"

"Yes, to all three questions," Puck said. "I lied for good reason. I was investigating crimes under cover. Crimes that involved you, Piper, Phoebe and Prue, God rest her soul. I was doing my job."

"And I was doing mine," Price said. "I was protecting our secret. This secret puts us in life threatening situations all the time. Prue died because of it. Friends have died because of it. I was protecting something dangerous that is not our fault. Because if we were exposed it would've killed us all, and it would have left this city and even the world in danger from greater evils than the ones you deal with. I was protecting you."

"Me?" he asked, subdued somewhat by Price's speech.

"Yes, you," Price said, taking a breath and calming down a little. "Halliwell women kind of have a track record when it comes to dating everyday guys such as yourself and then revealing our secret. Our father couldn't handle it. He took off because he didn't want to watch Prue, Piper and Phoebe die. Andy Trudeau couldn't handle it either. And according to Piper and Phoebe, he and Prue had the kind of love that little girls dream about from the time they know about love. But Andy freaked out. One of Piper's ex's freaked out, too. Like you did."

"Well, can you blame me?" Puck asked. "I mean, I thought maybe there's something a little weird going on with your family. But I never dreamed…" He trailed off. "I wasn't expecting witches, demons and supernatural stuff."

"I could've explained it better if you'd given me the chance," Price said.

"Well, I was kind of worried about giving you a chance," Puck said. "My line of work is dangerous. But you're right. It's nothing compared to what you've told me about. I've personally known four cops who've died in the line of duty in the ten years that I've been in this line of work. You, Piper and Phoebe have known more people who've died because of what you do in the past 3 years. Then Inspector Morris threatened to hurt me if I exposed you. You could say I was a little scared."

"Darryl threatened you?" Price asked with a small snicker.

"Yeah, pretty much," Puck said.

"So anyway, I guess the main reason I came here was to see where we stand," Price said. "Relationship-wise."

"I can't deny that I have feelings for you, but from what you've told me it's not exactly safe to love a witch," he replied.

"Well, nothing's safe," she said. "I can't promise you won't come into supernatural danger from time to time. But I'm willing to try to make this work."

"I guess it's not impossible," he said. "I mean, Piper and Leo and Phoebe and Cole made their relationships work. And those two are just regular guys right?" Price didn't reply. "Right? Price?"

"Um, not exactly," she said with a sheepish smile. Her beeper went off then. She looked down and saw that it was Piper's cell number on the screen. "All I can tell you right now is that Leo is and Cole was supernatural. I can explain it more later." She stood. "At dinner? Can we try this again?"

"Friday at five," he suggested. Price nodded her head and then walked away. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Piper. "What's up?"

"Um, do you remember that birthday party I was catering today?" she asked.

"Uh, vaguely, sure," Price replied.

"Well, the birthday boy has disappeared," Piper said.

"Oh, that's horrible," Price said as she got into her car. "How are his parents holding up?"

"They're a wreck, especially his mom," Piper said. "But I actually called because Phoebe suspects the magician of doing something supernatural."

"You're kidding," Price said.

"I wish I was. Because if she's right this'll be the second time that I've catered a kid's birthday party where a supernatural evil has kidnapped the kid. We attract this stuff like flies."

"It's not your fault Piper," Price said. "So I guess you guys want me to look in the Book of Shadows for leads."

"Yeah, if you could," Piper replied. She heard Price sigh. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Spill," Piper said, knowing that something was up.

"Well, I've got this story due by five today, but I was so distracted by the Puck issue that I couldn't get anything done. So I talked to him and pretty much resolved it. But now I don't know if I'll get the story done," she replied.

"Then do that first," Piper said. "Phoebe and I can handle it when we get home. I just thought you could get a head start on it."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," Piper replied. "We've always done our best not to jeopardize our jobs because of the supernatural."

"Okay, I'll join you guys as soon as I can," she said. They both hung up and Price hurried home so she could finish her story and then help her sisters.

* * *

><p>"I told you Piper, that guy gave me weird vibes," Phoebe said as the two of them looked casually around the living room. They had just finished expressing their condolences to Steven's parents.<p>

"Yes, Phoebe, you've told me several times," Piper said. "Just because he gave you bad vibes, it doesn't mean that he's a demon."

"Yes, it does," Phoebe replied. "This guy was all wrong."

"So what are we going to find? Evil magicians? Supernatural David Copperfields?" Piper asked. "We don't have a whole lot to go on."

"What's that?" Phoebe asked, pointing to the hardwood floor near the area where Maxwell the Magnificent had had his trunk of props. There was a white substance scuffed on the floor.

"Flour," Piper suggested.

"I doubt that," Phoebe said. She approached the white marks and knelt beside them. Piper glanced around to make sure no one was looking. Phoebe touched it and sniffed her fingers carefully. "Chalk."

"What?"

"Chalk," Phoebe repeated. "It's chalk. Why is there chalk on the floor?"

"Well, nobody died and it's not in the shape of a person anyway, so we can rule out the police putting it there," Piper said. "Maybe one of the kids did it."

"No, they've been outside since we had cake and ice cream," Phoebe said. "None of them would have had time to put it there."

"Um, okay, so who do you think put it there?" Piper asked.

Phoebe looked closer at the chalk on the floor. She knew Maxwell had put it there, and he had tried to hide his tracks. But Phoebe could see that it had been a circle and then something else. There were markings. Phoebe touched some of the smudged markings and she was suddenly pulled into a premonition.

A tied up Price was standing in a circle of chalk and there was a hoop with black cloth attached to it. Phoebe could barely see a chalk marking under Price's left foot.

She came out of the premonition and stood, immediately turning to Piper. "I need a pen and paper now." Piper pulled out a pen and looked around for paper.

"Excuse me, what are you ladies doing?" the inspector on the case asked. His name was Cortez. "What's that on the floor?"

"Um, I'm not sure," Phoebe said. Piper handed her a piece of paper. "It kinda looks like chalk."

"Do you know when this chalk got here?" Cortez asked, kneeling down to inspect the floor.

"Uh, I don't know, sometime after cake and ice cream," Piper replied. Phoebe was drawing something on the paper. "Uh, you don't need us anymore, do you inspector?"

"No, you're free to go, but we may call you if we have more questions," he said, still looking at the chalk. Piper grabbed Phoebe and led her out of the house.

"All right, so what's the drawing?" Piper asked once they were in the car.

"I had a premonition of Price. She was tied up and standing in a chalk circle. I saw this marking inside the circle," Phoebe explained. She showed it to Piper. It looked like a Chinese character. Neither of them had any idea what it was. "Hopefully we can find this in the Book of Shadows."

* * *

><p>"I want my mom!" a little girl cried. "Where's my mom?"<p>

Maxwell walked past the locked door that the girl stood behind. He had learned to ignore the cries of all the children. He couldn't stand it otherwise, couldn't stand the little voices that pleaded for their mommies and daddies. He continued down the hallway and ended up in a dimly lit chamber. A man in black leather pants and a leather coat turned and smiled.

"Did ya get another one, Max, buddy?" the man asked. He walked forward until he was right in front of Maxwell.

"Yeah, a boy named Steven," he replied. He showed no happiness about the statement. It was just a statement.

"Atta boy!" the man said. He gave Maxwell a congratulatory smack on the shoulder. "You're the best magician in the Bay Area. That's what I tell everybody."

"Right, Deke," Maxwell said. He walked away to the other side of the room. "You know, I was wondering if we had enough kids yet."

"No, he wants more," Deke replied. "We've almost paid off our debt, I think."

"It's just that…" Maxwell hesitated. "I think that people might be getting suspicious of me. I don't know if I can get many more kids."

"Come on, Max," Deke said, walking over and putting his arm around Maxwell's shoulders. "Just a few more, and we're paid off. We've only got a couple days till he comes to collect. So, you just keep bringing the kids in, I'll watch 'em, and we'll pay Hasek his fee."

"They're just kids, Deke," Maxwell said timidly.

"And it's just our lives Max," Deke said, pushing him away. "You having second thoughts? Cuz I'll turn you over to Hasek and get the rest of the kids myself. You may be my brother, but our blood runs thinner than you think."

Deke walked out of the room without waiting for Maxwell's answer. The magician slumped down into a chair and thought about what he should do. He didn't want to die, but he was having a hard time dealing with the fact that he would soon be responsible for the deaths of 20 kids.

* * *

><p>Piper paced in front of the podium that held the Book of Shadows while Phoebe looked through it for leads. Price had gone to turn in her story and would soon be there to help them.<p>

"There's got to be something, Phoebe," Piper said, rubbing her temples.

"I can't find anything about demons posing as magicians to steal children," Phoebe said. "I've looked up everything that could involve abducting or terrorizing children and the only ones we've got are Grimlocks and trolls. We took care of them already, and they don't match up with Maxwell the Magnificent."

"Well, I would really like to assure Cindy that Steven is going to be okay," Piper said, massaging her temples with the thumb and middle finger on her right hand.

"Can't we ask, Leo?" Phoebe asked.

"No, we can't," Piper said, her frustration evident. "He's on an assignment that makes him unreachable unless it's a major 911. And besides, he and I have had arguments about us relying on him too much for answers, and I'm starting to think he's right. We keep looking to him as the quick fix, and we shouldn't. He's our guide, not our 'Ask Jeeves.'"

"Okay, so we'll have to think of something else to look under for this," Phoebe said. She rested her hands on the Book of Shadows and tried to think of an answer. Price walked in then and stopped in the doorway, stifling a snicker and the sight of her sisters thinking so intensely.

"Don't think too hard guys," she said. "You might hurt yourselves."

The two eldest looked up and offered weak smiles to Price's attempt to lighten the mood.

"Wow, you've really found nothing?" she asked.

"Well, I wouldn't say nothing," Phoebe said. "We've found a lot of stuff. None of it has to do with magicians kidnapping children, but we haven't found nothing."

Piper looked at Price with a smirk. "We've found nothing. So, you're fresh to the situation here. Any thoughts?"

"Well, you guys have been looking for this guy, thinking he's the demon," Price said. "What if he's not?"

"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked.

"What if he's a human working for a demon?" Price asked. "Is that possible?"

"We've seen it before," Piper said. Phoebe nodded her head, remembering Bane Jessup, the guy who had been hired by Barbas to kill witches.

"So, if this magician's human we could track him down," Phoebe said. "Personal records and stuff like that."

"Darryl could check the guy's criminal record, if he has one," Piper said.

"I've got some connections I could squeeze for some other facts," Price said. "Stuff that doesn't show up on a criminal record."

"Man, it's great having an investigative reporter on our side," Phoebe joked. "And I guess I'll try and get a hold of Cole, see if he's got any input on this."

"Sounds like a plan," Price said. "Time for us to see what Maxwell the Magnificent has got up his sleeves." She smiled at the other two. "Pun intended."

They rolled their eyes and then led Price out of the attic, thinking about their tasks.

* * *

><p>Piper and Darryl stood behind a uniformed officer who was running Maxwell "the Magnificent" Collins through the database. So far all they had was a few unpaid parking tickets and a speeding ticket that he had received two years ago.<p>

"Why am I looking this guy up?" the officer asked.

"Because I asked you to, Murphy," Darryl said. "Do you need a better reason?"

The officer looked up at Darryl and then went back to the computer. His last check was the FBI database. If Maxwell wasn't there, they had a fresh criminal on their hands.

"Nothing with the FBI," Murphy said. "This guy's pretty clean."

"Thanks," Darryl said. He led Piper out of the room without another word. They sat at Darryl's desk. "So, what now?"

"Now, missing children," Piper said. "Guys like this have a pattern, right? There's gotta be more missing children in the city."

"There always is, unfortunately," Darryl said. "This could take me a while to look into. How far should I go back?"

"Um, a year or two should be far enough. I can't imagine this guy would go unnoticed for too long," Piper said. "Call me if you find anything."

"Of course," Darryl said. Piper left the police station and got into her car. What she didn't know was that someone was watching her.

* * *

><p>Price never thought she would enter a place like the bar she had just stepped into. The smoke hung in the air like an early morning fog hung over the bay. Guns N Roses blared from large speakers hung in each corner. A football game was on the television, muted. The patrons were mostly men, four of them playing pool at two different pool tables while others watched. It reminded Price of the bar that Arnold Schwarzenegger was in at the beginning of Terminator 2, complete with a few sleezy looking women.<p>

She saw her source sitting in the corner. The woman was in her mid-thirties, her blonde highlights possibly being the brightest object in the entire bar. She was looking down at an untouched martini, and Price had a pretty good idea why that martini was untouched. It wasn't exactly the type of thing to order in a place like this. There were three drinks in this bar—beer from the tap, beer from the bottle and shots of vodka.

She had a feeling that her source, who preferred to go by Diane (although she had made it clear that wasn't her real name), knew that she was there. But there was no movement to suggest so. Price sat down across from her, and the woman didn't even look up. Neither of them said anything for a moment. Price went over what she knew about Diane in her head. She knew that she worked in a comedy club on the other side of town, which was why, Price assumed, they were meeting in this dive. That was about the extent of her knowledge about Diane, other than the fact that she had connections to information somehow.

"All right, I'm looking for information on a magician, goes by Maxwell the Magnificent," Price said. "I did some digging and it turns out he did a tour throughout the city's comedy clubs last spring. Any chance he was at yours?"

"He did a show there last May," Diane said. "What do you need to know?"

"I've got name, rank and serial number," Price said. "I need the stuff you can't find in public record."

"Rumor has it he got himself in debt with someone he couldn't afford to pay back," she replied. "We were his last stop on his tour. He started doing kids' parties and stuff like that."

"What do you know about his personality?"

"He kinda kept to himself. He was real nice too. Said please and thank you to the waitresses. Hell, he even tipped them. None of our performers tip, let alone pay," Diane explained. "His act was amazing though. He did this disappearing trick with this one woman. Unbelievable."

"Wait, describe the disappearing trick," Price said, eager that she might be getting some useful information.

"Well, he drew this chalk circle in the middle of the stage and drew some symbols inside it. Then he had her stand in the middle and pulled up this black cloth. He said some stuff in a weird language and dropped the cloth. She was gone."

"Do you remember anything specific about what he said?"

"Um, well there was one word he said my brother recognized, because it sounded like the name of a hockey player," Diane said. "See, my brother's a big Detroit Red Wings fan, and their goalie's name is Hasek. That's what he heard. Hasek."

Price couldn't believe she had found this out. It was like she had hit a pot of gold. "You have no idea how helpful you've been today." She pulled her wallet out of her purse.

"Why are you wanting to know stuff about a magician anyway? I mean, last time you asked me for info you were investigating the rave scene. What's the deal?" she asked, accepting the money that Price handed her.

"Trust me, this is extremely important," Price said. "Thank you." She left the bar and got into her car. As she pulled out of her parking space she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.

* * *

><p>Phoebe and Cole walked into the Manor after he got off work. Cole hadn't had much information to help the situation with the magician.<p>

"One hundred years as a demon and you know as much as we've learned in three and a half years about child abducting demons," Phoebe said in frustration. "I thought you were supposed to be powerful."

"Well, I was otherwise engaged," Cole said. "Twenty years of my mother bringing me up in the evil ways. And there were those eight years in the late 80s when the Source put me through law school."

"So what happened to the 50 years in the middle?" Phoebe asked. "Doesn't anybody socialize in the Underworld?"

"I was terrorizing people not trading manly stories with the boys," Cole joked. They headed up to the attic. "You guys haven't found anything?"

"Well, Piper's working with Darryl, and Price is checking with her sources," Phoebe said. "But they haven't called yet. Who knows if they've found anything yet."

"And you haven't found anything, so we're going up to the attic, why?"

"I've learned ever since I found the Book of Shadows the night I came back from New York that no matter how many times I look in it I will never see everything in it," Phoebe said. She went to the Book and started flipping through it. She stopped when the phone rang. As Cole watched Phoebe answer the phone he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Hey, Phoebe, it's Price. I hit the jackpot," she said as she waited at a traffic light. She exhaled a little when she saw a detour sign a block down. 'Long way home,' she thought.

"What ya got?" Phoebe asked. "Please tell me you have something because Cole, the man that I love so much, gave me zilch." Cole shot her a look and she just smiled at him.

"I have a name," Price said as she moved down the street toward the detour. "Hasek."

"Hasek? The hockey player?" Phoebe asked.

"You know hockey?" Price asked in surprise.

"I went to Rangers games all the time in New York," Phoebe replied. Then she shook her head, realizing they were getting off track. "But anyway, back to demons. Its name is Hasek?"

"That's my guess," Price replied. She turned right and then took a left, having to follow the detour wherever it took her. "My source said she heard Mr. Magnificent chanting it during a disappearing trick. She also described a circle of chalk on the floor with symbols inside, just like you found this afternoon." Price wasn't paying attention to where she was going and didn't even realize the detour was leading her out of town.

"Well, this is great," Phoebe said. She turned to see Cole was already looking through the Book of Shadows for Hasek. He looked up and signalled Phoebe over. "I think Cole found Hasek in the Book of Shadows."

"Ooh, do tell," Price said.

"Ah, see here's why we didn't notice him before," Phoebe said. "A demon who feeds on pure souls. We were just looking for the words children or kids."

"It's all in the wording. That's what my marketing professor used to tell me," Price said. "That could explain why I had to take that course twice. Have you heard from Piper?"

"No, not yet, but she'll probably check in soon," Phoebe replied.

"Well, I was forced to take a detour, so I'll probably be…what the hell?" Price finally realized where she was. "Okay, I wasn't paying attention and somehow the detour led me out of the city. I guess that's why people are against cellphones while driving. I'm on Old Shore Road."

"Where were you in the first place that would put you anywhere near Old Shore Road?" Phoebe asked. Price didn't say anything. "Well, just turn around and find a different way home. Old Shore Road we take you twenty minutes out of your way."

"Okay, I'm on my…aaaaah!"

Phoebe heard Price scream, the faint screech of tires and then lots of crashing noises. Then the phone went silent. "Price? Price?" There was no answer. Phoebe was instantly worried, so she tried their connection. She felt nothing, which meant Price was either dead or unconscious. She hoped for the latter. Quickly she dialed Piper's cellphone. She got the voice mail. "Piper, it's 7:30. If you get this within the next twenty minutes head out to Old Shore Road. I think something's happened to Price. I'll explain the rest later."

Without another word she grabbed Cole's hand and the two of them headed out of the Manor to find Price.

* * *

><p>Piper couldn't believe she was stuck at a garage. She paced in the waiting area as a mechanic dug around under her hood trying to find out why the weathered Jeep had stalled out. She stopped pacing and pulled her cellphone out, cursing when she realized it was off. Darryl could have called, or one of her sisters. She turned it on and sure enough she had a voice mail. Phoebe, something happened to Price. Piper put her phone back in her purse and went out to the work area, approaching her mechanic.<p>

"Excuse me!" she shouted over the noise of hydraulic tools and clanging wrenches. "Excuse me!" The mechanic looked up at her. "How long is this going to take?"

"Uh, I can't be sure," he replied. "I haven't found the problem yet."

Piper grunted and pulled a pen and paper out of her purse. She wrote her cell number on the paper and stuffed it in the mechanic's pocket. "That was my cell number. Call me when it's done. I've gotta go."

"All right," the mechanic said. He just shrugged his shoulders and went back to looking under the hood as Piper left the shop, her cellphone to her ear as she called a cab.

* * *

><p>Price opened her eyes, but she couldn't see very well. Her head felt like it was being squeezed in a c-clamp and her vision was blurred. When her vision finally cleared up she realized that she was upside down in her car. Her seat belt was holding her in her seat, and the rush of blood to her brain certainly wasn't helping any head trauma she had incurred in the accident. She thought of how she would unstrap herself without causing more pain by falling to the roof of her car. Then she realized she could use her power to prop herself up. She did and once her seatbelt was undone she gently lowered herself down. She laid on her back on the inside of her car for a moment, trying to recall what exactly had happened.<p>

A deer? No. Some kind of large animal? No. It was a person…no, not that either. A demon. There had been a demon in the road. She swerved to the right which, after a narrow shoulder led to a hill steep enough to cause her car to roll.

"Phoebe," she said aloud. She had been on the phone with Phoebe. She looked around, but saw that her cellphone was nowhere to be found. Not surprising since all the glass in her car was broken. It had very likely been thrown loose from the car. Finally, she regained enough to composure to crawl out of the car, noticing the sharp pain in her left wrist. 'Possible sprain, maybe broken,' she thought as she was completely out. She stood and leaned against her overturned vehicle. It was then that she felt something warm running down her face. She touched her right temple and felt it was sticky and wet, not to mention that it hurt like hell. She looked at her fingers and saw blood there, her blood.

"Well, it's probably not too bad," she said. She pushed away from her car, leaving a couple of bloody fingerprints on the silver paint, and then she headed back up the hill to the road. Halfway up, she found her cellphone. It was mangled to death.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms down to her sides. She struggled, but she suddenly felt dizzy as her surroundings disappeared and everything went black.

* * *

><p>"Let me out here," Piper said as she noticed Cole's car pulled over on the shoulder ahead. The driver stopped, Piper paid him and she got out, watching him speed away. "Phoebe! You here?"<p>

"Piper, down here," she heard Phoebe call. Piper looked down the hill to see Phoebe and Cole standing next to an overturned car. Piper joined them.

"Did you take a cab?" Cole asked.

"Long story, not important," Piper said. She looked closer at the car. "This is Price's car. What the hell happened?"

"We don't know, but look," Phoebe said as she pointed to the car door. There were two bloody fingerprints on the door. "I'm guessing it's her blood."

Cole tried to reassure them. "It doesn't necessarily mean that she's hurt too bad. It's not a lot of blood. Of course she's going to have some cuts from this accident. If she walked away she can't be too bad."

"Or she could be delirious, wandering around without knowing where she's going or even who she is," Piper said.

"I know I can always count on you Piper to think of the worst case scenario," Phoebe said sarcastically.

"Oh, I haven't even started," Piper said. "She could've gotten up to the road and been picked up by a psychokiller or maybe a demon. She could've been picked up by the demon we're looking for."

"Piper, stop," Cole said, grabbing her arm. "You're overreacting. We'll find Price."

"Sure, but in what condition?" Piper asked in a low tone.

"Okay, okay, Piper," Phoebe said. "Just think, about ten minutes ago, didn't you feel pain and fear?"

"Um, no I didn't, I was probably distracted by my own worry," Piper said.

"I felt it," Phoebe said. "But it was only for a couple minutes, then it went away again, which means she's unconscious somewhere."

"Which leads right back to the question of where," Piper said.

"We'll have to go home and scry for her," Phoebe said.

"What if we don't have time for that?" Piper asked.

"We don't have a choice," Phoebe replied.

"All right, let's go," Cole said. The three of them headed back up the hill. As they neared the car, though someone jumped all three of them behind, and the strange part about it was that there was only one presence there besides them. They knew it. Cole turned onto his back and was surprised. "Hasek?"

Hasek grabbed Cole by the throat and then tossed him down the hill. Cole tumbled and slammed into Price's car. Then Hasek hit both Phoebe and Piper over the head in one quick motion, knocking them unconscious. Cole stood, running up the hill to stop Hasek, but he wasn't fast enough as Hasek disappeared with the sisters.

* * *

><p>Phoebe opened her eyes and found she was looking up at a ceiling. But that wasn't what disconcerted her. What disconcerted her was that her arms were tied to her sides and she was looking through glass. She looked around and was able to see that she was in a glass box about the size of a coffin. She struggled against the ropes, but they were tied tight. She looked around again and noticed a tube in the top of the glass coffin. She guessed she was getting air through it.<p>

Then she noticed Price, who was looking over at her. The youngest Halliwell had her arms bound to her side and she was standing in a chalk circle, just like Phoebe had seen in her premonition. What she hadn't noticed in her premonition was the cut on Price's head.

Price's gaze shifted past the glass coffin and Phoebe followed it. She was shocked to see Piper strapped down to one of those wheels that Phoebe had seen in carnivals with the knife thrower. Things couldn't get any worse. Or so Phoebe thought. She looked over and saw Hasek standing with another man.

"Max!" Deke shouted. His brother soon entered the room through a door near Piper and gasped at the sight of the three bound witches. He was even more surprised by the presence of Hasek.

"What's going on? Deke, what are these women doing here?" he asked. Then he recognized Piper and Phoebe. "Wait, they were at that party today."

"You led witches right into our operations Max," Deke said. "I'm pretty pissed, but I'd forgive ya. I mean, you're my brother. Hasek here, though, he's mighty pissed and he's not the forgiving type."

"But I didn't know they were witches," Maxwell said.

"Doesn't matter," Deke said.

"First they die. Then you die," Hasek said. Deke stepped forward and stood next to the glass coffin. He looked down at Phoebe.

"So, do you have any idea what it's like to suffocate?" Deke asked. Phoebe didn't respond. "Well, you see, Max isn't the only magician in the family. It's really the family business. But Max didn't like the dangerous stuff. Mom and dad on the other hand, were risk takers. You see, your sister is tied up to the exact same wheel that my mother was killed on. Dad got a little shoddy with the knife throwing. And you, my dear are lying in the exact same spot where our pops suffocated. This box is what he called "The Chamber of Death." Once I pull out this tube, you've got fifteen minutes before you run out of oxygen. It's a special design that dad came up with. Unfortunately, his first test failed." Deke pulled the tube out, and covered the hole. Phoebe started struggling against the ropes. He turned and smiled at Price. "I guess she doesn't know that struggling uses more oxygen.

"Why were you taking the kids?" Price asked.

"Well, you see, Hasek here did us a favor," Deke said.

"Now I'm collecting on that favor," Hasek said.

Deke picked up some knives, and turned toward Piper. Maxwell watched on in fear. He didn't want these women to die.

"Flip the switch, Max," Deke said.

"No," Maxwell said.

"Come on, you're right next to it. Flip the switch," Deke ordered. Maxwell didn't move. "Fine I'll do it." He tossed a knife and hit the switch inches away from Maxwell who jumped to the side. The wheel started spinning and Piper could already feel she would be dizzy soon.

Deke took aim and threw a knife. Piper cried out in shock when it stuck deep in the wheel right near her left wrist. Deke took aim again and tossed another knife. It embedded itself near Piper's right thigh. He tossed one more knife and it stuck near her head.

"You know, this is my last knife," Deke said as he held the knife in his hands. He looked over at Price. She was watching in fear as Phoebe suffocated and Piper was about to be stabbed with a flying knife. "I'll have to make it count."

"Please, stop this," Price pleaded. Deke took aim, reared his arm back. Piper closed her eyes and seconds later she heard both Price and Maxwell scream, "No!" No pain followed the screams as Piper would have expected. She opened her eyes and she saw Maxwell standing in front of her. She couldn't see much else because of the spinning, but if she had to guess she figured the knife was stuck in Maxwell's chest.

He staggered backwards and hit the switch, shutting the wheel off before leaning against the wall. Piper wasn't exactly pleased when she stopped spinning and ended up upside down. She looked over and saw Maxwell pulling the knife out of his chest. He took the knife and whipped at Deke who had no time to react.

"No! You owe me!" Hasek cried out. He turned to Price and shot an energy bolt at her, but she fell onto her side to avoid it. Deke and Maxwell had both fallen to the ground, dead.

"Price!" Piper cried out. She struggled against her bonds, trying to loosen them. The screw on the strap on her left wrist was coming loose. She started struggling more as Price kept dodging Hasek's energy bolts. One of them grazed her ropes and she fell to the floor, glancing up to see that Phoebe wasn't moving. She saw Hasek readying another energy bolt when his hand suddenly exploded, splattering green goo all over the place. Price looked up to see that Piper had a wrist free.

Price struggled with her ropes as Piper took aim and blew up Hasek's head. More green goo splattered, and Piper went to work on the strap holding her right hand.

"Price, can you get Phoebe out?"

"I have to get myself untied first," Price said. She could feel the ropes loosening, but it would still be a while. "Has it been fifteen minutes?"

"I don't know," Piper said. She now was working on the last strap on her left ankle. When she got it undone, she swung her legs down and tried to recover from the rush of blood to her head. She hurried over to the glass coffin and pushed on the lid, but it wouldn't budge. "Price, I really need your help here."

"I'm trying," Price said. "Untie me."

Piper knelt down and frantically pulled on Price's ropes. They had to get Phoebe out and fast. "All right, got it."

Price threw the ropes off and had Piper stand back. Then she flung the lid off the coffin with her power. She lifted Phoebe out telekinetically and let her rest on the floor. Then they knelt next to her.

"Phoebe," Piper said, checking Phoebe's pulse. It was there, but it was weak. "Phoebe, come on. Breathe."

Suddenly Phoebe gasped for air and started coughing. Piper and Price released sighs of relief. "Slow breaths, Pheebs," Price said.

"I hate magicians," Phoebe said as she laid with her eyes closed and focused on breathing. Piper and Price just laughed.

* * *

><p>They found the twenty children all in separate rooms down a long hallway. After some convincing that they were the good guys, the children followed the Halliwells out of the building, Phoebe in the lead and Piper and Price bring up the rear.<p>

"Hey, are you okay?" Piper asked. "I mean, from the car accident."

"Yeah. Well, I think my left wrist might be broken and it feels like someone's using a jackhammer on my skull, but otherwise," Price said. "So how do we explain this without looking like kidnappers?"

"I've got my cellphone," Piper said. "I'll call Darryl. Once he's here, we leave and he claims anonymous tip. The kids go to their parents, and his kidnappers are dead."

"It's good to have a cop friend," Price said.

"Or two," Piper said, smiling at Price.

"Yeah, or two," she agreed. She just hoped that she wouldn't blow her second chance with Puck. As more demons attacked them every day, Price started to realize what Phoebe and Piper were saying about relationships with mortals.

THE END


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